Friday, October 26, 2001
"We have gone from a nation of people whose motto was 'Don't Tread on Me' to one where citizens don't mind so much being trod upon as long as it doesn't take much timeŅas long as the sobriety check-point line isn't excessively long, as long as the security guard looking in our purse is quick about it. Any grumbling comes not from the intrusion but the inconvenience. In modern America, time is more valuable than privacy. The government has taken this acquiescence as a cue to barge on in. In the name of uncovering criminal acts, we have each undergone a transition: from citizen to dossier."
This is the personal weblog of Grant Barrett, editor of the Double-Tongued Dictionary, a collection of words from the fringes of English. More about this site...
Recent Entries
- A hearty endorsement of shout quotes: scare quotes used for emphasis
- How to buy a dictionary
- Jinx and padiddle: games we play
- Saying it wrong on purpose
- Nicknames from the Underground: Busharraf, Chillary, and Killadelphia
- New slang unpacked
- UPDATED: Crosswords in Black and White
- Find me in American Way Magazine
- Recent catchwords: read-alike, violin hickey, throw a Porsche at someone, Q-tip cruise, 1-800 car
- The Tell-All of the Century: Snitching Slang
- Fog line, instant ancestor, trashout
- See, ya kid: saying goodbye in slang
- Interview with British slang lexicographer Jonathon Green
- New Scientist: “Word nerds capture fleeting online English”
- The blueprints of a Craigslist apartment scam
Recent Catchwords
- park v. (5/16)
- whale eye n. (5/16)
- water buffalo n. (5/16)
- Churchill n. (5/15)
- moondust n. (5/15)
- mouse type n. (5/14)
- hung up adj. (5/14)
- sideways market n. (5/14)
- Bristol dust n. (5/14)
- booth turnaround n. (5/14)
- YAWN n. (5/13)
- doodlesocking n. (5/13)
- job and knock n. (5/13)
- radwaste n. (5/12)
- meat without feet n. (5/12)
- night-out money n. (5/12)
- podbusting n. (5/12)
- short-and-distort n. (5/12)
- yoging n. (5/12)
- nightstand Buddhist n. (5/9)
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